More tech events affected by coronavirus

Fortinet cancels Barcelona partner event and IBM pulls out of RSA

Coronavirus has continued to wreak havoc on tech events globally, with Fortinet cancelling its partner event in Barcelona, and IBM among a number of vendors to pull out of RSA.

Fortinet's Accelerate conference was due to take place this week, but the vendor updated the event's website towards the end of last week revealing it had been abandoned.

Fortinet said: "Holding our first Accelerate in Barcelona was exciting on many levels.

"The demand exceeded our expectations and we were all looking forward to spending next week with our valued partners and customers.

"After much consideration, the decision was made to cancel the event to avoid any possible spread of coronavirus."

Fortinet said that registration fees paid by credit card would be automatically refunded within a week. It added that attendees should contact airlines to cancel flights.

Meanwhile IBM has revealed it will not be attending the RSA cybersecurity conference in San Francisco later this month.

The vendor confirmed the news in a tweet, with RSA saying that Big Blue is one of eight vendors to pull out.

Six of them are from China, one is from the US, and one is from Canada.

RSA said that around 0.79 per cent of the number of individuals set to attend have cancelled so far.

It added that the chance of coronavirus spreading at the conference is low because the vast majority of attendees are based in the US.